I'm thinking of buying one of the "Wire Tracker" kits from Ancor, and was wondering if anyone had ever used one of these. I'm trying to rewire, and have 20 years worth of "spaghetti" that I'd like to track down and remove, if possible. Here are some questions for discussion.
1. I've seen telephone guys use something like this, and I believe I've seen them at Home Depot or Lowes. Harris is the manufacturer, IIRC. Is the Wire Tracker basically the same thing? Any advantages to either?
2. Would one of the telephone units (i.e., Harris) be better/more reliable/more useful/more flexible?
3. Exactly what does "unergized", as used in the Wire Tracker literature, mean?
4. The Ancor unit seems to be much more "cost effective" than the Home Depot ones. Any reason?
5. Does anyone actually use these things for their intended purpose?
In article <rodm51tcm2kqs24j9k2pnqhh17k15p9d9i@4ax.com>, profgumby@comcast.net says...> Hi there,>
I'm thinking of buying one of the "Wire Tracker" kits from Ancor, and> was wondering if anyone had ever used one of these. I'm trying to> rewire, and have 20 years worth of "spaghetti" that I'd like to track> down and remove, if possible. Here are some questions for discussion.>
1. I've seen telephone guys use something like this, and I believe> I've seen them at Home Depot or Lowes. Harris is the manufacturer,> IIRC. Is the Wire Tracker basically the same thing? Any advantages> to either?>
2. Would one of the telephone units (i.e., Harris) be better/more> reliable/more useful/more flexible?>
3. Exactly what does "unergized", as used in the Wire Tracker> literature, mean?>
4. The Ancor unit seems to be much more "cost effective" than the> Home Depot ones. Any reason?>
5. Does anyone actually use these things for their intended purpose?>
Thanks all,> SS>
Un energized means no power, disconnect the battery.
We used to call the telephone units bliffy sniffers and they work ok
Frankly, for DC wiring, both boat and auto I find that a simple VOM meter and twenty or thirty feet of primary wire with gator clips on either end works as well as anything. The only time a bliffy sniffer is of any real asset is if the wires are bundled and there is no or confusing color coding. If all you want to do is make sure that a wire goes from point A to point B with no breaks or shorts or find out where point B is the there isn't any need to get fancy.
Clip the primary wire to one end of the circuit to be checked, the other to the VOM and an with the lengths mentioned you can move all over a vehicle checking for continuity. If the VOM has an audible continuity test so much the better.
Note, bliffy sniffer is not a brand name!
Note; For either method, if the wires lead back to a common distribution panel, IE fuse panel you've got to remove all the fuses.
